Paintings of Terror

Chapter 65: Raising Animals

TW: Brief mention of an anorexic patient

As he passed in front of the bull, Ke Xun boldly lifted his head up to look it in the eye.

This bull was unlike the ones found in real life; it was taller and sturdier such that it made humans feel like cats or dogs in comparison. Ke Xun needed to raise his head up awkwardly to even see its chin.

The bull also lowered its head to glance at him, but it obviously didn’t take Ke Xun seriously. Instead it used the large rod in its hoof to tap once on Ke Xun’s back. The hit was neither too light nor too strong but still stung a bit, leaving Ke Xun with no choice but to hurry and join the others in entering the houses.

The inside of the houses resembled prisons as well: there were booths on either side of the house that were separated by brick walls, and the ‘doors’ facing the middle hallway were blocked off by iron fences.

Just then, all the iron fences opened up and the naked men began to file into the rooms one by one. However once in a while, that sturdy bull would lift somebody who just entered a room with its hoof and throw them into a different one. Ke Xun stayed behind and carefully observed for a bit and found that the room allocations seemed to be related to age.

Among the people present, the elderly were assigned to the same room and the middle-aged and younger men were similarly separated from each other. Right when Qin Ci, who’d been walking at the front, was about to pick a room, the bull suddenly leaned down and picked him up with its hooves. The three newcomers were frightened and began to flee in different directions. Ke Xun immediately grabbed Wei Dong in one hand and Mu Yiran in the other before ducking into a nearby room.

The giant bull ignored the scrambling newcomers and carefully examined the Qin Ci who was still dangling from his hooves before turning its head and raising its voice to shout outside: “Moo moo, moo moo moo moo, moo?”

“What the f*** it can even shout questions?” Wei Dong quietly complained while shivering.

Soon another large bull resembling the first ran in from outside before coming to a stop. It took Qin Ci from the other bull’s hooves and also looked him over a few times before communicating with the first bull:

“Moo moo, moo moo moo, moo moo.”

“Moo, moo moo, moo moo mooo, moo. Snort snort oh oh.”

“Snort snort oh oh, moo moo moo.”

Ke Xun and Wei Dong:? “…….” Is this….. A comedy? These two- these two wouldn’t also happen to be childhood friends right….?

After the giant bulls finished talking, one of them snatched Qin Ci and put him in an empty room before heading towards the still chaotic newcomers. The other bull left and returned after a bit with a round stamp in its hoof.

At this time all three newcomers were thrown into Qin Ci’s cell, but the first bull still moved around inspecting each room. Ke Xun speculated that it might be looking for them.

The other bull took the round stamp, grabbed Qin Ci and the three newcomers, and stamped each of them on their lower backs. Ke Xun remembered that there seemed to be blue marks on the other naked men, some of which appeared faded. Others were fresher and more recent but Ke Xun didn’t dare look too carefully so he ignored it.

Thinking of it now, these marks seem to be……

“It seems similar to those stamps they put on pigs in a pig farm ah.” Wei Dong was picked out by the bull and bitterly complained as he was stamped on the back.

In the end, the few outsiders couldn’t escape the fate of being stamped and were all unceremoniously tossed into the same cell as Qin Ci. Aside from them, there were also seven or eight naked young men in the compartment as well.

“Call me ignorant but what exactly does a blue stamp on a pig’s butt mean?” Ke Xun rubbed his lower back as if trying to erase the mark away.

“It means a boar (a male pig).” Qin Ci’s expression was complicated. “A red stamp usually means a female pig.”

Everyone: “…..”

“I’d rather die than be humiliated like this!” Wei Dong touched his lower back as he wailed, and then asked, “Wait, what kind of stamp does a breeding pig get-?”

Everyone: “…..”

“Can you guys stop being so noisy??” One of the NPCs in the same room spoke, “If we’re stamped then we’re stamped, isn’t this normal?! Be more obedient or else don’t blame us for being impolite!”

Everyone calmed down after hearing those words and took a look at the seven or eight painting NPC’s. These people who were close to their age had arrogant faces and two even had provocation in their eyes, especially when looking at Ke Xun, Mu Yiran, and the six foot tall Dong Dong.

In the world of men, people either admired strength or they envied it.

“What are you looking at!” Dong Dong was someone with a fiery temperament. After adding in the stress and bewilderment he had ever since entering the painting, he finally erupted and stared down those two pairs of infuriating eyes like a wrestler in a fighting ring.

“What are you going to do about it?!” The two of them were even more unwilling to show weakness, and their companions followed suit in glaring at Dong Dong.

“Dong zi, don’t cause trouble.” Yuan Yuan promptly held Dong Dong back.

Wei Dong: “Eh?”

Ke Xun: “Don’t be so quick to answer, his name has an extra radical.”

Wei Dong whispered back in a quiet voice: “There’s this discomforting feeling of when a genuine product meets a counterfeit.”

The two groups of people were still staring at each other when they heard cheering coming from the other rooms. Ke Xun, who had been standing next to the iron fence door, stuck his head out and saw the two bulls each holding a large pot and tossing food into the compartments.

.

This… This was feeding time.

Ke Xun glanced at Qin Ci who had the same indescribable expression on his face.

Unlike the previous paintings, this feeling of being akin to livestock was really unbearable.

After all, in the first few paintings even if they died, it was at least the dignified death of a human being. In this painting…. The ego of being a higher organism on Earth was completely trampled to dust.

This kind of feeling really made a person feel both shame and anger.

As the food was being distributed, those few painting NPCs no longer made trouble for Dong Dong, instead cheering excitedly as they watched the giant bull deliver their food. Ke Xun swore he saw sparkles shooting out of their eyes.

A large amount of food spilled out.

These individual rooms didn’t have ceilings as both the walls and the iron fence were high enough such that a human being couldn’t climb up. The large bull dropped the food from the space above, and they saw boxes rain down towards the hard brick floor. Unexpectedly, inside the boxes were large amounts of packaged food bags, there was even Coke!

Wei Dong was stunned silly by the bottle of Coke that landed on him: “Isn’t this treatment a little too good? They get to eat this everyday?”

Ke Xun also picked up some of the food near his feet: “Whole milk, butter packets, cheese, french fries, cream puffs, cream biscuits, buttery cakes, chocolate, nuts, candied fruits, canned fruits….. I can’t say exactly if this treatment is good, but these are things we sports students aren’t allowed to eat.”

“Why?” Bi Jing asked.

“This kind of food increases fat storage as well as the burden on your liver and kidneys,” Ke Xun threw away the food he was holding and pointed at Yuan Yuan, “You can ask him, the food here are probably his favorites.”

Yuan Yuan was a little embarrassed and tossed away the Coke and fries in his hands.

A few of the NPCs were still wildly snatching up the provisions, and each person tightly hugged them to their chest before running to a corner as if they couldn’t wait to stuff the food down their throats.

“Can we eat these?” Yuan Yuan asked Qin Ci with a quiet voice.

“I feel like…. We probably can?” Qin Ci responded.

“Then… let’s eat?” Wei Dong looked at the other experienced players.

Qin Ci nodded slightly: “Let’s at least eat a bit, who knows what’ll happen in the future.”

Everyone picked up some food from the ground in silence.

Ke Xun developed a habit of not eating junk food from his school days, so he felt conflicted looking at the food provisions. In the end he picked up a few nut packets and a can of fruit before sitting next to Wei Dong and Zhu Haowen.

Due to being a starving artist for so long, Wei Dong wasn’t very picky and chose a few different foods. Some of the packaging wasn’t transparent and had strange words printed on them so it was hard to tell what was inside.

After taking a bite of cake, Wei Dong looked over at Ke Xun, then at the Mu Yiran sitting across from them and couldn’t help nudging Ke Xun and asking: “What’s wrong with you? How come you’re not sitting with your male god? Why do I feel like you’ve been avoiding him ever since you saw him again? What’s up, were you violently rejected?”

“Shut up and eat your food, it seems like being naked really upped your curiosity.”? Ke Xun lowered his eyes and picked some fruits from the can, being especially careful to not drink the juice inside.

“You like him?” Zhu Haowen, who had been silent the entire time, suddenly asked.

Ke Xun was startled and turned his head to look at him: “Fuck, what’s wrong with you guys today? Every time you eat you feel like butting into other people’s business? What kind of strange disease do you guys have? Everybody just shut up and eat, alright?”

Zhu Haowen looked at him a few times before putting a piece of chocolate in his mouth.

“Hey, look at this,” Wei Dong called Ke Xun over, “This seems to be meat?”

In his hands was a packaged bag that emanated the smell of fragrant meat upon opening it.

“It shouldn’t be beef right.” Ke Xun smiled maliciously and pointed at the bull that had already reached the end of the hallway.

Wei Dong was speechless: “….. Do you really think they’d be so magnanimous that they’d feed us their own meat?”

“I think it’s better not to eat the meat.” Mu Yiran’s voice came from the other side of the room.

Wei Dong glanced over at Ke Xun and saw this guy lowering his head again before picking more fruit out of the can.

“Big boss, you mean… this meat isn’t safe?” Wei Dong asked as he put down the meat.

“I can’t guarantee what the meat is,” Mu Yiran faintly looked over, “But it’s definitely not beef, or lamb, or even chicken.”

“Also, try to avoid eating too much of the other food as well,” Qin Ci added, “I get the feeling something strange has probably been added to them.”

“How strange could it be?” Wei Dong lowered the cake in his hands.

“I have a good friend who studied traditional medicine,” Qin slowly replied, “I saw them treat an anorexic patient once, and I’ve tasted some of the herbs used in the medicine before. I seem to taste something similar in the food.”

“In other words,” Mu Yiran continued, “The food likely has fattening ingredients.”

“……Fuck.” Wei Dong tossed all the food he’d been holding to the ground.”

“Eat the dried nuts ba,” At this time Ke Xun raised his eyes as he continued talking, still avoiding Mu Yiran’s gaze, “These dried nuts all have shells, I inspected the insides and I didn’t see any thread, so these are probably natural and haven’t undergone any processing. Nuts are also high in calories so even if you eat less of everything else, you’ll still be able to hold on for awhile.”

“These two bulls…..” Dong Dong hesitantly spoke, “Why would they feed us fattening foods?”

Mu Yiran’s voice sounded extremely callous: “Why don’t you think about why a pig farm would fatten their pigs.”

……

A: Guess how many times I had to type the word “moo” for this chapter. Bonus points if you don’t go back and count XD

H: I keep wondering about the logistics of a bull holding anything in a hoof…